Pages

14 June 2011

Super Natural Everyday - Spinach Strata

I have been looking forward to getting my hands on Heidi Swanson's Super Natural Everyday and it finally made it all the way to New Zealand this week. It is a beautiful book packed full of nutritious vegetarian recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. Heidi's recipes are good for you but more importantly though they taste amazing and they are everyday so dinner or a snack can be whipped up quickly. Even on a first quick scan this book will clearly join my favourite and go to cook books with simple, fresh, seasonal ingredients coming together to make tasty fare.

And even if you are not vegetarian these recipes cannot fail to inspire you to try a little meat free fare. There are so many recipes I want to make...Lemon Zested Bulgher Wheat, Black Bean Salad with Oven Roasted Tomatoes, Almonds, Lemon Zest and Feta, Chanterelle Tacos, Black Sesame Otsu and Turnip Chips...yes turnip chips, they had me at smoked paprika and lime juice.

It was hard to know where to start but that was solved by this week's vege box and some bunches of spinach so Spinach Strata it was to be. This does need preparation the night before but that will take only minutes and then it is ready to pop in the oven and you have a breakfast or brunch good to go.

Spinach Strata, courtesy of Heidi Swanson's Super Natural Everyday

I only had regular versus baby spinach and that worked fine. I also had a whole packet of feta needing used so I just added the whole lot. I love feta so not a problem there.

Serves 6

Ingredients

Grated zest of 1 lemon

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling

2 tbsp Dijon style mustard

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/4 tsp pepper

500ml milk

6 eggs

3 cups day old 1cm whole wheat bread cubes

2 cups finely chopped baby spinach

1/2 cup feta, crumbled

1 tsp fresh oregano, chopped

Directions

Rub a little olive oil in a 23cm square baking dish, or similar. Sprinkle over the lemon zest and set aside. In a medium bowl whisk the olive oil, mustard, salt and pepper with a splash of milk. Whisk in the rest of the milk and the eggs.

Place the bread in the baking dish and top with the spinach and half the feta. Gently mix everything together with your hands. Make sure everything is fairly level in the baking dish and slowly drizzle over the egg and milk mixture. Crumble the remaining feta over the top, cover and place in the fridge overnight.

The next morning pre heat the oven to 175C / 350F. Bake the strata, uncovered for 45-55 minutes until the egg is set in the middle and the top is golden brown. Heidi suggest you cut a little bit in to it to be sure it is cooked through and err on the side of well done rather than under done. For an even crispier top you can pop it under the grill for a few moments. Drizzle with a little olive oil and the oregano.

iPhone

Camera

This is a hearty brunch dish. The lemon zest comes through and adds a light, bright and citrusy hit. The bread is soft underneath and on the top it is toasty and crunchy. And then those two best friends spinach and feta...yes one quite delightful brunch dish.